October 24th, 2011
I am back..finally. Turns out I am not good at keeping all my plates in the air and I let this one drop. Now that I have a few less plates spinning and a little more time I can finally catch up on those items that I put on the back burner.
I did complete one triathlon this season. Wanted to do more but it wasn’t meant to be.
It wasn’t my best triathlon but it was the one where I learned the most about myself. So my favorite part worst sport of the three is swimming. Its a wonder I don’t drown every time. I even took a swim class this winter. It helped…sort of.
Even though I was close to being the last one out of the water I am going to give myself credit for a couple of things:
- I didn’t have to be rescued by the kayakers
- I kept my sense of humor
- My slow swim made it easy to find my bike since almost everybody had already left!
Off on the bike. Surely I would make up time here. It was not to be. Here is the short version of what happened in the middle of the killer hill ( of course)!
- my chain came off
- get off bike fix chain
- get back on bike and try to make it up this hill ( did I mention how insanely steep it is?)
- chain comes off again
- get off bike
- swear
- fix chain
- cross fingers
Once I got back on the bike for try #2 I can’t get my momentum back to get the hill
- Momentarily think about quitting
- more swearing
- walk bike up hill
- get back on and pedal like mad.
The rest of the ride was fairly uneventful. I found my sense of humor and even scolded the cop who was busy taking up the safety cones before I even passed his checkpoint.
By the time I started the run I knew I was dead last. So I spent time making peace with that during the run only to discover at the turnaround there was someone behind me.
Seriously?? I just made peace with it and now ..mmm… no time to think just run.
One of the nice things of coming in at the tail end is that there are lots of people to cheer you in. They are truly happy for you and you know the clapping and cheers are sincere.
After some water and a banana I got into the crowd to cheer the last person in. While standing there I found out it was her first tri, she beat breast cancer and also lost over 100 lbs.
WOW!!
Suddenly my woes during the race seemed trivial compared to the real life challenges of this triumphant participant.
She may have been last in the race but she was first in facing real life challenges.
It’s people like her who inspire me to keep “triing” no matter what the outcome because there are victories to be had just in the triing!
Be inspired!
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January 19th, 2011
Mulit tasking seems to have become an art form despite all the studies that say our brains really can’t perform several functions at the same time. Let me rephrase that. Our brains can’t handle doing several tasks at the same time and do them well.
Still we try. All of our electronic gear makes us think we can do it all without cloning ourselves.
We can walk and text…NOT as evidenced by the video below.
Woman falls in fountain while texting
I’m glad she wasn’t outside where she could have fallen into a ditch, walked into oncoming traffic or gotten hit by a car.
Her cell phone took a bath ( not good) and she was embarrassed ( survivable) and this video has pretty much gone viral so she will never live it down. On the plus side she gave us all a good laugh.
Speaker phone is another mulit tasker tool..useful when on perpetual hold..not so useful by lazy people who refuse to hold the phone to their ear and then FORGET to tell you that you are on speaker phone and then EVERYONE hears things they are not suppose to hear. Not to mention you can hear the person you are talking to doing everything BUT listening to the conversation.
So how does this relate to Marathon Monday ( once again falling on a Wed)??
Quite frequently I take my dog to the very end of a street near our home. There are several vacant lots so its a good place to play. Since its the very end of the street no one comes down there unless they live there or are lost so there is very little traffic.
So Max and I are playing and I see a woman out for a run heading towards us. We are blatantly visible. By the way, Max is a pretty good size golden retriever..a little hard to miss. She had her headphones on and was NOT paying attention. Max , of course, as all goldens do was absolutely certain that this person would be more than happy to pet him, pay attention to him etc.
Goldens operate on the toddler rule “Its all about me, no matter what, if you came to see Jenn, you really came to see me”.
I was about a second too late from grabbing his collar to keep him from running up to this gal.
He conveniently became deaf to the “come” command.
She screamed..turns out she is afraid of dogs. She yelled this to me as I grabbed Max.. she continued to the end of the street (not too far) back up the road and on her merry way. I felt horrible the rest of the day. I should have had him on his leash, how stupid of me and a few other choice phrases, until I had a realization.
She wasn’t paying attention. She KNEW she was afraid of dogs. We were visible and yet she kept running towards us because she was not paying attention, had her music up so loud I could hear it clearly and she was totally zoned out much like the woman texting .
Yes I am partly to blame HOWEVER as a female runner I have a few AWARENESS rules ( awareness=common sense)
- When running alone, no matter what time of day…BE AWARE OF YOUR SURRONDINGS.…duh!
- Sometimes I run with my Ipod but I am still AWARE OF MY SURROUNDINGS ( volume down low or only one ear bud in)
- If you are afraid of dogs, cats, deer, construction workers, snakes, clowns..whatever…be AWARE and don’t keep running towards them if you see them ahead. Duh again!
- Know your route. I don’t care if its the safest neighborhood around, don’t run in isolated areas.
Next time you are trying to do several things at once step back and check in with yourself
- Are you being fully present with what’s important?
- Are you aware of your surroundings and the people around you?
- Are you doing any of these tasks well?
If the answer is no to any of these then slow down and do 1 thing at a time ( what a concept)
Or keep multi tasking and watch yourself fall into a hole while running or into a fountain while texting..I’ll be the one LMAO nearby.
By the way.. I am allowed 1 or 2 cranky blogs a year.. Guess this counts for one!
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January 3rd, 2011
Welcome to my Marathon Monday Posts. Happy Monday. While I am not officially registered for the Marine Corps Marathon I am already committed to it so starting today and every Monday until the marathon and possibly beyond that you will be seeing my “Monday Marathon ” posts.
These won’t always be about the actual marathon. And they might not always make it here on a Monday. Every Monday’s post will be a surprise, even to me! Whatever pops up about the marathon or life in general is fair game.
If life is a marathon I AM in desperate need of a rest stop. The vision of that is so appealing. I am working, working , working, cleaning up, cleaning out, cooking, running errands, my mind is going in a thousand different directions, phone calls, e-mails, paying bills, crossing off my things on my to-do list, adding things on my to-do list, adding things I have already done just so I can cross them off and then as I round the corner in my house…a rest stop. Everything fades away and someone offers me a drink of water, an energy bar, there is a place to sit and put my feet up, it is quiet, my breathing slows, my mind empties…a candle is lit.
Sounds great . I was all ready to write about how this rest stop bit could be one of my New Years Resolutions but since its Jan 3rd that might be a problem. I am already 3 days behind. MMMM…not really, at least not for me. My New Year always starts on the 4th of Jan. Really..it truly is the start of a new year for me because ITS MY BIRTHDAY!!!
Feel free to send birthday wishes tomorrow…I will not grow old before my time so wait until tomorrow.
Today,however is my grandaughter, Summer’s 5th birthday. She was my gift, a day early in 2006. Best gift I ever got!!
I realized as I prepared for the holidays that I really do need to find a rest stop somewhere in my busy days. I did take a day off after Christmas, stayed in my pajamas, read, lounged around, watched a movie. You know what? I discovered doing nothing is exhausting! I enjoyed it however I have decided that if I kept that up I would be the living example of Newtons first law
“an object at rest stays at rest” ( thank-you Google!)
“Yup..there’s Mom. She sat down one day and never got up. Lately we’re having a hard time figuring out where she ends and the chair begins”
Okay..not that much rest. Balance would be a better word. With a sprinkle of “simplify”, “fun”, and “serenity”
Sounds great. My resolution for 2011 is balance. Where do I start? mmmm my mind is wandering already. Balance is a great word for 2011 but it is not quite doing it for me.
If you know me then you know I am not a one word kinda gal. That would be my dear hubby who is quiet anyway and with me around, well, he is down to one word here and there.
A phrase for 2011 would suit me better. So here it is!
“Anticipation of quiet creativity”
This is my rest stop. This is what is getting me out of bed in the morning. Huh? Let me explain.
- Anticipation…looking forward to.
- Quiet….slowing down, centering,balance
- Creativity…anything that gets my juices going..writing, reading, baking, scrap-booking….music, walks with my dog. even running. Running doesn’t “slow” me down but it does pace me with a comforting rhythm.
The anticipation of being creative enough to fit this into each day is incredibly energizing.
So there you have it. I found my rest stop. Its up to me to keep it fully stocked and always available. It is my respite.
You can do it too. Its free, its fun, its essential. Take one right now and promise to take one, two or three everyday.
You are so worth it!
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December 7th, 2010
Sometimes I just know. Its that feeling in my gut. Intuition. It feels right and I know I will regret it if I don’t do it.
It can be about other people, family, friends, acquaintances or it can be about ME!!
The powerful ones are those that come to me and I think really? No way!!
I shove it aside and it pops up again and I say…c’mon, really?
I shove it aside again but this time it doesn’t budge it stays put and says “I am here to stay, deal with me, make the decision and we both already know what it is.
I tried to ignore this last one. I tried to tell myself that its only a maybe and I could wait until Feb 23rd to make a decision.
I really did try.
I knew I was in trouble when I started smiling about it, when I started visualizing how it could be…uh oh…this isn’t going to wait until Feb 23rd.
I was starting to feel like Kevin Costner in “The Field of Dreams” with the voices but instead of saying “Build it and he will come” mine would say:
“Do it because you can…now is the time”.
For me this is a big deal…because I have never wanted to do this before..nope not me..no way I want to do this. Some of you reading this have already done this many times and it’s not a biggee. But for me… I can’t believe I am even considering doing this but it feels right so I know I must.
I want, must, have to run the Marine Corps Marathon. For whatever reason this will not leave me. And it can’t be any other marathon. It has to be the Marine Corps Marathon. So now that I am saying it I can quiet that inner voice.
So here is the question…can a woman who just started running about 6 years ago, train and run a marathon knowing that 2 short months later she will be having that double nickle birthday?? Am I crazy? (Relatives and close friends may NOT answer that last question)
Part of me thinks this is about triumphing over the excuses I came up with this summer for not running. Seems I have hooked into the weather like I am Sam Champion and use it as the perpetual excuse NOT to run. It’s too hot, it’s too humid, it looks like rain, is that thunder I hear? And as the weather turns colder..it’s too cold , windy, the wind chill makes it blah, blah blah. Can anybody relate?
I just posted about what happened to me three weeks ago while running in the cold. The Cliff Notes version is I ended up with a bad cough and pulled muscles from coughing. Find the longer version here: Cough and Stand up Straight
By the way I DID do a short run on the treadmill today..felt good to get back into it.
So now that I have posted it here and told a few people, it is real. My next step is to start training AND register on Feb 23rd.
The actual marathon is not until Oct. 30th so 2011 will be a year of races and training . I’ll keep you posted.
So what about you? What is your GUT telling you…are you listening?
Take a moment, pay attention throughout the day. Give yourself some quiet time…turn off the TV, the music, go for a walk. Allow that inner voice to speak..give it some time. It will show up maybe not right away and certainly not everyday. But its there.
It might be telling you to call someone, send a note, try something new, step out of your comfort zone. Let me know what you hear or feel…especially if it tells you to run the Marine Corps Marathon..I could use a buddy..or at least a cheering section.
Hoora! Semper Fi
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December 5th, 2010
I was going to title this “Cough but Don’t Bend Over” but I thought too many people might take it the wrong way. So I titled it the opposite, however it means the same thing.
I speak from recent experience. Clean thinking here please. Trying to keep this blog on the PG side of things.
I acquired a rather nasty cough that would not go away. Actually I had gone running about 3 weeks ago in some rather cold weather and came home feeling like I had smoked a pack of cigarettes.
The hacking turned into a cough and finally I went to the doctor. I obviously had something brewing before the run as the antibiotics cleared up the cough.
The medicine did not clear up my sore muscles from coughing .
You would think I would learn from experience as this has happened to me before. Evidently I am a REALLY slow learner.
If you see someone cough or sneeze in slow motion you would see what stress it puts on the body.
I don’t need to see it, I can feel it.
All the muscles on the left and right side of my chest are pulled. As the day wears on it feels like I am wearing a corset that someone is gradually tightening.
Those women who wore those things were more than a little nuts.
Since cold and flu season is creeping around the corner waiting to pounce I suggest you refrain from bending over or using any other poor body mechanics to cough. Grab a pillow to brace yourself, sit down, get some medicine, and be gentle with yourself.
Otherwise you will end up b&*^%y cranky like me, unable to run and impossible to live with..or so I am told.
Not only are nurses really bad patients but we are impossibly impatient with the healing process.
Enough already!!!
Monday I am planning to run for the first time in weeks. Not far and I will probably be a wuss and do it inside on the treadmill.
Okay let me rephrase that lest all the treadmill users think I am criticizing them.
I am going to play it safe and use the treadmill.
I really do prefer to run outside but I will agree that perhaps inside is a better choice this time.
A little exercise will do my body and my mood some good. My husband and dog will be so relieved.
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